AARGH! Once again the window closed for some reason, so here goes 3rd time:
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I remembered a rumour that THC would kill cancer cells. So I googled a bit and found this: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37948

I'm not a biologist, so it would take me weeks/months to understand all of it, but I think I got the main point right: THC makes (at least glial) cancer cells go through apoptosis (non-cancerous cells kill themselfs when they see that something's wrong with them) by dilating the endoplasmic reticulum and starting autophagy, so the cell sort of... eats itself to death?

Quote:Autophagy can promote cell survival or cell death, but the molecular basis underlying its dual role in cancer remains obscure. Here we demonstrate that Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component of marijuana, induces human glioma cell death through stimulation of autophagy. Our data indicate that THC induced ceramide accumulation and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) phosphorylation and thereby activated an ER stress response that promoted autophagy via tribbles homolog 3–dependent (TRB3-dependent) inhibition of the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) axis. We also showed that autophagy is upstream of apoptosis in cannabinoid-induced human and mouse cancer cell death and that activation of this pathway was necessary for the antitumor action of cannabinoids in vivo. These findings describe a mechanism by which THC can promote the autophagic death of human and mouse cancer cells and provide evidence that cannabinoid administration may be an effective therapeutic strategy for targeting human cancers.

a bit more Wrote:Finally, we analyzed the tumors of 2 patients enrolled in a clinical trial aimed at investigating the effect of THC on recurrent glioblastoma multiforme. The patients were subjected to intracranial THC administration, and biopsies were taken before and after the treatment (11). In the 2 patients, cannabinoid inoculation increased TRB3 immunostaining and decreased S6 phosphorylation (Figure 8A). Interestingly, the number of cells with autophagic phenotype (Figure 8B) as well as with active caspase-3 immunostaining (Figure 8C) was increased in the tumor samples obtained after THC treatment. Although these studies were only conducted in specimens from 2 patients, they are in line with the preclinical evidence shown above and suggest that cannabinoid administration might also trigger autophagy-mediated cell death in human tumors.

I'd love to see a continuation study with more patients' specimen and different kind of cancer cells.

But have I missed something, since THC being a potential treatment for brain tumors and cancers sound like big news to me, but it's not widely talked about and it's not commonly used in arguments for the legalization of cannabis?

I would have to say that the reason it's not an argument for the legalization of cannabis is because there's simply not enough research to show whether cannabinoids can actually treat cancer. Unfortunately, the research requires funding, and since the public, for the most part views marijuana as an "illegal street drug", politicians would be comiting political suicide by directing funds toward the research of said drug. The good news is, times, they are a changin'. More research is being done, and more importantly, more of the research that's already been done is being made more public. That's a huge obstacle though. How many times have you heard someone say, "Marijuana kills brain cells"? They say that because dramatic research (like the research done in the 60s that indicated marijuana kills brain cells) gets headlines. Everyone and their dog read that headline on the front page news. Very few people heard about the faulty methods used though, because it was not nearly as exciting. (The jist of it is, researchers gave monkeys marijuana by putting masks on them and filling it with HUGE amounts of marijuana smoke. Half the monkeys actually died, and all of them had a great many destroyed brain cells. Not long after the research was released, several other researchers pointed out a glaringly obvious flaw. The masks were so heavily flooded with smoke, that there was no oxygen available. Hence the dead brain cells. The research was laughed at by well known, thorough researchers, but the damage was already done) Research like this is usually approached the same way most creationists approach science. They decide what the truth is from the bible, then seek out scientific evidence to prove it. Most marijuana research is approached the same way. The determination is made that marijuana is harmful, then research is undertaken to prove it, instead of simply researching the effects of marijuana to determine what positive and negative effects it has. Rest assured there are some of both.

I know I strayed a little bit here, but my point is that there is little research done, and much of the research that IS done, is done poorly.

Ah, finally a nice theme for me. And first I have to say, Stark Raving you are very wrong. Cannabis is the most researched plant on this planet, there is over 20,000 studies on various effects/uses of the plant. To be honest, this is the first time I hear of this fact, but there are other facts I knew a long time ago that goes together with this fact.

There was a research in Britain about cigarette smoke and marijuana smoke. So they took 4 groups, cigarette smokers, marijuana smokers, mixed smokers and non-smokers. After a few years the result was that the cigarette smokers have higher cancer risk, but that the marijuana smokers have the same risk for getting cancer as the non-smokers. And then the most interesting of them all came the mixed group, they also had the same risk of getting (lung) cancer as the non-smokers. That gave me an idea that the marijuana cancels the negative effect that the tobacco has on your lung, it protects them. I wasn't far from the truth. An also about brain damage, complete bullshit, in reality it is the opposite thing, marijuana helps brain to regenerate cells and as such it can help you with Parkinson, Alzheimer, multiple sclerosis... Also, couple of months after you stop smoking, you body is clean as you never smoked in your life, meaning that marijuana does not leave any permanent damage to your body, only temporary side effects. Unfortunately I don't have time right now we will have to continue this tomorrow.

I was always saying that this is the holly plant, able to cure the most dangerous illness... If you want God, there it is, in the joint.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.-Hunter S. Thompson

It doesn't matter to them because they make more money off of selling pills that don't even work. They would make less money by providing medicinal marijuana. I'm all for legalization of the "WEED" but I think it will increase laziness if it were to be used for recreation by more people... just like alcohol you have more drunks.

It appears that they can't do a continuation study with a bigger group of humans due to lack of funding.

I think that the potential of THC as a new treatment for the most common brain tumor without all the nasty side effects could, and maybe should, be used as an argument for the legalization of cannabis, at least for medical use, even when lacking further study. If suffocating monkeys are enough for the ''other side'', then rats with human cancer succesfully treated with THC should be enough for ''our side'', as long as we keep it realistic (You know, not heading to the streets yelling ''OMFG CURE FOR CANCER MEDICAL COMPANIES WILL GO BANKCRUPT LETS MAKE THIS SHIT LEGAL IMMIDIETLY AND GET STONED SHITLESS!!!11'').

I went over my post and you are right to say I am wrong. I gave the impression that I was saying there is little research. What I meant was there is little research on the effects of marijuana on brain tumors. My post was poorly written. (I do that when I gert riled up about a topic!) Unfortunately though, much of the research that has been done on the effects of marijuana are projects that are underfunded, and therefore poorly executed. Especially those done in North America. (Remember, the US government, and to some degree also the Canadian government won't account for research done elsewhere when drugs are involved).

Here's the thing. Inhailing smoke isn't good for you. Whether it's from a wood fire, a cigarette, or a joint. Anti-pot people take that and say, "well, you see? It's bad for you to smoke weed, just like cigarettes" But that's just not the case. Smoking a joint is the same to your lungs as any other plant smoke. Some residue is caught in the lungs, there is a certain (negligible) degree of oxygen deprivation, and it temporarily thickens mucous (because it's a foriegn body and the mucous is what collects it and removes it. Natural) Now enter Mr. Cigarette. Chock full of all kinds of nasty, unnatural, poisinous shit. A cigarette IS NOT a tobacco leaf that is dried and rolled into a cigarette. But that aside, nicotine is poisonus. There is no nicotine in cannabis, and no evidence that there's anything else poisonus.

So riddle me this, Batman.....Why the hell are cigarettes still legal, and pot is not. The answer really is simple. Cigarettes make people sick. Sick people need medicine and treatment. Medicine and treatment need to be paid for. The people who have the biggest piece of pie in the drug companies are also the lawmakers and politicians. For them, cigarettes = $
Pot doesn't make people sick. It can in fact cure many ills. It can be used as medicine. Healthy, happy people, who can grow an effective medicine for pain, nausia, and I'm sure many other yet-to-be-discovered applications do not need medicine and treatment. (At least not from the corporations that peddle things like oxycontin). So for the lawmakers and politicians, marijuana = loss of $.

Recreationally, it's a whole other topic, so I won't get into that here. But as far as using marijuana for medicine, to say no to that is ludicrous. And yet, there are many states in the US that still do. Until we start seeing pot as yet another amazing part of the natural world, we'll never be able to fully take advantage of the potential it has to heal.

And here I am. So first some interesting facts about "weed"... I have already mentioned that it can slow down (not cure) Alzheimer, Parkinson and multiple-sclerosis by helping the brain to regenerate brain cells, and that is the complete opposite of what we read in the newspapers. This fact also shows how uninformed and controlled the media are... Lungs of marijuana smoker are damaged while smoking, but a few months without smoking, your lung are clear as you never smoked, but if you smoked cigarettes, it can take a couple of years to clear your lungs, if ever. And did you know that smoking pot can slow down AIDS progress? That is known for 20 years, but still people are giving away enormous amounts of money for those cocktails that help sometimes. And then there is the most used treatment, for cancer patients on chemotherapy marijuana is used for curing nausea and improving appetite. And it is better then all the medicine combined together. It removes nausea in 90% of patients (medicine is only 60% successful) and it also gives them munchies, so they have the appetite again. And then there is also something I noticed in my 13 years of smoking experience. I never, ever get sick. You know, those annoying 3-5 days of high temperature, fever, coughing and sneezing... But if I stop smoking for a week I usually get sick a little for a day or two. I thought it was just me, or it was just a coincidence, but then I did an experiment... I had a friend, a girl, she was catching a cold every 10 days for years and then I started to tell her that she has to start smoking weed. Stupid of me, I know, but we were 17-18 at a time, so what do you expect. She did start to smoke, not nearly as much as I did, but from time to time she would smoke a bit and like a miracle she stopped being sick. Couple of years passed and she never got cold... So that is one area I never saw medically confirmed but very interesting, because it appears that weed does something to your immune system.

And now for the hard truth, why is Cannabis illegal? Believe it or not, it's because of cotton. Not because it is a drug, not because it is poison, or because it will make you an addict, but because of cotton, invention of nylon and the owner of biggest cotton factories and inventor of nylon DUPONT. 100 years ago all the textile was made from industrial cannabis, your clothing, ropes, parachutes, backpacks, sacks, paper (!)... And then came Dupont and by the means of politics and money, he pushed his law that the weed is bad and it is a drug, so USA (were the first) outlawed it in the 1920s, and then put political pressure on the rest of the world to do the same. And they did not make a difference between industrial and "stoners" cannabis. Only France refused to put industrial cannabis out of use, because they saw great profit in it, and they are still growing it. Last decades Canada and few other countries are seeing their errors, so they are bringing it back.

Unknown facts: 0 persons died from extensive use of cannabis, 0 deaths are associated directly with cannabis, weed does not leave you to "harder" drugs, it does not make you addicted; cannabis produces 10 times more oxygen than any other plant (!); cannabis can be used for making paper and it can produce up to 4 times more paper that the same amount of wood, wood for paper takes 40 years to grow back, cannabis takes 6 months; cotton is the plant that uses most pesticides, cannabis uses none; cotton destroys the earth where it is grown, it takes years for earth to recover, cannabis has no effect on earth; cannabis seeds can be used as food, minced and pressed cannabis can be used to build whole houses and it is an excellent isolator, no concrete needed, and all those medicinal uses make cannabis the most incredible plant on this planet...

Like yourself, I too, very rarely get ill but never really thought that it could be attributed to smoking the 'ol weed as I also eat well, get good sleep and regularly laugh until my sides split.
What I think is a shame is how alcohol became society's legal drug of choice.
Alcohol is one of the most destructive drugs on the planet as it has many undesired consequences (mainly violence and aggression) when consumed irresponsibly (and most of time, it is). Marijuana, on the other hand, has almost the opposite effects (being relaxed, contemplative, amusing: amongst others).
What a different world it would be if the situation was reversed!
War...what war?

Weed isn't all positive. First of all I'm against exposing developing minds to these sorts of drugs. If you want to experiment I think you are better of waiting till your early 20s where the brains wiring is more stable. (It will generally take more to radically change the brains structure/chemistry at this stage.)
If you want to do well at school, retain information better, cannabis will not improve your final grade. This has been proven conclusively with science.

Cancer is a massive field in healthcare by itself. Any anti-cancer potential it has would be limited to a very narrow subset of cancers. Also the effectiveness is limited. Trust me - if we noticed people smoking weed having an unusually low cancer rate - the medical profession would jump on it. Bob Marley died from melanoma combined with severe stupidity and his Rastafarian beliefs where he refused to amputate until it was too late...
Cancer is extremely complex because it is caused by a wide array of genetic mutations/mis-folded proteins etc.. THC could only act on a limited subset of those genes. Be skeptical of anyone claiming 1 chemical curing cancer or having general anticancer activity. Even when talking about cancers in 1 area of the body..

I don't want to be a party pooper here but whenever I see/hear this kind of one sided drug conversation I cringe. I'm not being a hypocrite here. I tried a diverse array of things quite a few years ago. Ketamine, MDMA, Mescaline (San-Pedro cactus extract), LSD, DOB, Psilocybin, Xanax, Flunitrazepam (guarantees a good nights sleep), Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate, Cannabis, 2-CB, 4-Methylaminorex, etc. All recreational and I knew basic organic chemistry, the affects and risks, how to do some basic testing for purity and concentration, and some chemical separation techniques like acid/base/solvent extraction.
I've moved past that part of my life many years ago.

I know the stupidity of society's laws making alcohol legal and cannabis illegal.. There are problems with addicts either way. It's not a simple matter of saying 'those alcoholics wouldn't have a problem if they were smoking weed instead.' Addictions come down to physiology, genetics and various other factors. Some people would still favour alcohol over weed if given the choice.

I would never encourage or condone the use of any drug. People should do their own research and decide what is right for them. Sadly allot of people will just take whatever they can get their hands on, no questions asked. For these people it's only about getting wasted and forgetting everything for a while, and don't care about the risks. I have always been against that kind of behavior/attitude.
I encountered PMA and other adulterants on a few occasions.. (Essentially poison - if you don't know how to test for it you are screwed depending on how much you take.)

Many of these posts read like a freaking advertisement.. What the hell is with that? Fucking Jesus!

DeepThought, who sad that if weed was legal a kid could smoke it? But with legalization comes control it would be 18 or 21 years, just like alcohol and cigarettes. I did start with 15, but I do agree that it was not a really smart move and it is harder to finish school all stoned. But now while it is illegal, the drug dealers don't really care how old are you, when it's sale is controlled you can control the to whom you are selling it. And I know that one plant is not all-powerful and that smoking is not the same as medical treatment, but still, there are numerous medicinal advantages and they have to be explored and used. My latest discovery is the THC oil. It can cure third degree burns and diabetes wounds better than anything in this world. Actually, there is nothing on this planet that can close and heal diabetes wounds, I know cause my father has diabetes and he can't close his wounds on his legs. Unfortunately there is no way I can get any THC oil, because it is highly illegal, and the process of making it requires a lot of weed, which I don't have and it is too expensive. So I know of a way to save my fathers foot from being cut off, but there is nothing I can do, because "they" say so... Well isn't that idiotic or what?

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.-Hunter S. Thompson